Ex-wife fails in bid for family home

The former wife of wealthy hospital chief Dr Walton Li Wai-tat yesterday failed in her bid to win the family home after a battle over her divorce settlement of about $40 million.

Evelyn Li Man-york, 49, was awarded an extra $2.6 million by the Court of Appeal, but this is likely to be swallowed up by her legal fees, estimated at $6 million. Mr Justice Gerald Nazareth accepted that the judge whose order she challenged had failed to give sufficient regard to her previous lifestyle when depriving her of the family home, valued at $29 million last year.

But he added that Ms Li had exaggerated her emotional attachment to the house.

She was also responsible for the 'outrageous failure' to disclose what she had done with $14.5 million withdrawn from Dr Li's bank accounts after the marriage turned sour in 1994, the judge said.

'The ill-advised reliance on behalf of the wife upon ridiculous grounds like the exaggerated emotional attachment, dislike of lifts, vertigo, and her new dog's needs, compounded by her lies and contumacious non-disclosure, seem to me to have diverted the judge's attention from the real position.' But the court did not interfere with the ruling of Deputy Judge John Saunders, in January, that the house be sold and Ms Li given $16 million of the proceeds to buy a new flat.

Mr Justice Nazareth said both Dr Li and Ms Li came from wealthy backgrounds. Dr Li's family was instrumental in establishing the Hong Kong Sanatorium, the SAR's largest private hospital. He is its deputy medical superintendent.